Episode 52
For a moment, Ezekail could only smile crookedly.
Of course that bastard wouldn’t miss news like this.
Arkenaus had a habit of flaunting Valdemaera’s wealth by wielding expensive rarities over his mistresses.
“I hear he was bidding against us until the very end. They say he looked terribly vexed when he failed to win it. I suppose he’s found another woman he fancies.”
Madam Serva clicked her tongue as well.
“No matter how vast the Valdemaera fortune may be, once he begins leading Valdemaera, he’ll squander that enormous wealth entirely on pleasure.”
It was hardly a surprising prediction. Still, it was worth keeping in mind that Arkenaus’s side might try to trace who had won the diamond. It seemed safest to set the surgery date as soon as possible, let Rose recover, and then bring her to the new mansion for a while until things settled down.
“Serva, a ring would be better for a proposal after all, wouldn’t it?”
To be honest, even sparing attention for Arkenaus felt like a waste right now. The person Ezekail wanted to devote his thoughts and focus to was not that man, but Rose.
“A ring is certainly the traditional choice.”
Encouraged by Madam Serva’s agreement, Ezekail made his decision.
“Then prepare it as a ring for now, and if Rose finds it uncomfortable, have it reset. A jewel should be suited to the convenience of the person wearing it.”
“Yes, I’ll commission it that way.”
“I’ll give the ring to Rose myself on the day she opens her eyes after the surgery.”
“You mean I should bring it in secretly, yes?”
Madam Serva discerned his intention with a subtle air. From the day he had instructed her to look for a new mansion, Ezekail had consistently emphasized absolute secrecy. His thoughts were so obvious, and so unexpectedly endearing, that Madam Serva was busy each time trying to hide the laughter that threatened to burst out of her.
Good heavens, to think Lord Ezekail would become like this.
Was love not truly a mysterious magic?
In the memories of many, Ezekail had been a boy who, from childhood, had possessed a maturity unusual for his age. Unlike Arkenaus, who was selfish but had his easygoing moments, Ezekail had a cold impression and a blunt personality, so everyone except Madam Serva, who had raised him on her back, had regarded him as a difficult second young master. Who could have imagined that such a boy would grow into an adult planning a proposal with a pounding, excited heart?
And that was not all.
He had become angry that the servants kept calling Rose away, yet he himself all but monopolized her; and with that innate stamina of his, he had tormented her so steadily every night that Rose had lost a great deal of weight lately.
Even so, Ezekail, who was preparing a house and a ring without letting word reach Rose’s ears and wondering how he could surprise her even more, was like a mischievous, fresh-faced boy.
He had changed so much even without being able to see; how much more would he change once he had the surgery and regained his sight?
Ever since Rose had appeared at this mansion, new vitality had returned to the master who had been passing through the darkest period of his life, and happy events had followed one after another. She was indeed Ezekail’s benefactor.
Madam Serva recalled Rose’s pale face as she had cautiously knocked on the mansion door on a cold, dark midwinter night and asked for work. When she imagined what sort of days Ezekail would be spending now if they had refused Rose then and turned her away, chills ran down her spine.
Thank goodness she had judged a person properly.
Taking pride in her own discernment, Madam Serva sorted through the plans that would soon have to be carried out, one by one.
It was time to prepare to welcome the mansion’s new mistress before long.
❖ ❖ ❖
“I came after receiving word from Dr. Briman. I am Polina.”
When autumn had deepened in earnest, the surgeon introduced by Dr. Briman arrived at the mansion. Rose, who had gone out to the entrance hall to greet her, unconsciously looked up at the doctor’s face as she stood there holding a large travel bag and a house-call bag, then hurriedly lowered her gaze.
It was because the doctor’s face was covered all over with mottled burn scars. Worried that her gaze might have been rude, Rose quickly composed her expression.
“Please come in. You must be exhausted after coming such a long way.”
Fortunately, the greeting came out fairly calmly. The doctor, too, accepted Rose’s guidance with an unperturbed manner.
The doctor was a young woman with a tall stature and a brisk impression. When Dr. Briman had said she was a young doctor, Rose had vaguely guessed she might be around forty, like the other doctors who had come and gone from the mansion until now, but in reality she looked to be in her early thirties, about ten years younger than that.
“And I know the most capable doctor in this field. I trust that she is a physician with the ability to do it.”
Dr. Briman, who was in his sixties, had confidently said of a doctor only half his age that she was the most capable person and had the ability to cure his eyes.
How many people could there be who, at such a young age, had their own specialty and were recognized by others to that extent?
She could say with certainty that there could never be many. Of course, within Rose’s own circle, there was one other person.
Ezekail.
At an even younger age, he had soared to an even higher position and gained nationwide fame. And the people of Astrie revered him and called him a war hero.
Likewise, Polina, too, must be no less a hero than Ezekail to the patients under her care. If she managed to cure his eyes with this surgery, she could even become a hero to Ezekail and the House of Valdemaera.
It was remarkable.
And at the same time, Rose was envious.
She had studied enough to become a doctor, had earned the trust of a long-practicing colleague like Dr. Briman as a reliable physician, and above all else, she was engaged in the noble profession of saving lives. It was so exactly the image of the ideal adult Rose had dreamed of becoming that it made her feel jealous.
Rose pressed her lips tightly together.
She, too, had wanted to become someone like that when she graduated from school.
She had thought she would live a life that was of help somewhere in this society, or to someone. Looking back, it had been a tremendous delusion.
“To be honest, this will be a very difficult surgery.”
Even when she sat facing Ezekail, Polina did not mince words.
“To explain the procedure in a little more detail, we fix the eyes in place with an instrument so they cannot blink, then, relying on a magnifying lens, incise the pupils of both eyes and remove the clouded lesions. As with many other surgeries, there is no saw involved and it does not appear, outwardly, to involve a great deal of bleeding, so it can be easy to take lightly. But in reality, it is not.”
“It doesn’t sound easy in the slightest.”
Rose looked down at the drawing Polina had made to help the guardian understand the surgical method, then took in a deep breath. She had only imagined it briefly, but already her heart felt as though it were tightening with a stinging pain.
“I had no idea such a surgery existed.”
“It’s only natural that you wouldn’t. It is not yet a commonly performed surgery. In particular, the method of incising the pupil to remove the lesion is one I devised for the first time. Dr. Briman was one of the few doctors who showed interest in the surgical method I published.”
Rose glanced at Ezekail. Though he had not seen the drawing, he must have understood the procedure of the eye surgery well enough, yet he still did not so much as blink.
“Will there be no pain?”
Rose asked in place of Ezekail, who seemed numb, as though nothing else mattered so long as the surgery succeeded.
“Of course there will be tremendous pain. Not only is the pain severe, but when the eye is touched, tears flow continuously as a physiological response. That is why, in surgeries like this, we bring in a surgical assistant to keep wiping away the tears so the operative field does not blur, and servants to bind and hold down the limbs. We do plan to use a small amount of opium just before the surgery to lessen the pain somewhat, but even so, the pain will not disappear completely. You must have often seen emergency treatment by army surgeons on the battlefield, so perhaps you would know better than I, Major…”
Ezekail, who had shown little reaction, opened his mouth for the first time, cutting off Polina’s words.
“There’s no need for that.”
His voice was calm, with almost no intonation.
“We won’t use opium. Proceed with the surgery as is.”
At his decision, Polina was flustered, and Rose started in alarm.
Were the eyes not vital points that instinctively blinked even when something merely approached them? To have a blade dig into the most delicate part of the body—enduring such a process fully conscious would be no different from torture.
“No matter how patient you are, this is not a surgery that can be endured without opium.”
Polina immediately began to persuade him.
She had seen many patients who were frightened of the pain and asked her to use stronger opium, but in all her life as a doctor, this was the first time she had seen someone say he would undergo surgery in his right mind. No matter how much experience she had with eye surgery, it was only proper to reduce the possibility of unexpected situations as much as possible. Even when drugged with opium, most patients screamed and made a commotion, crying that the pain was killing them. Ezekail’s demand was out of the question.
“I did hear from Dr. Briman that you suffered severely from withdrawal symptoms, but using opium once in a while does not produce the same level of addiction as before. Moreover, if a strong, large man like you were to thrash about during the surgery, neither I nor the doctor would have any way to stop it. And if, because of that thrashing, the surgical needle were to pierce the wrong part of the pupil…”
It would be the most horrifying outcome that could occur during the surgery.
Polina added weight to the words she had left briefly suspended.
“There would be no way back. You would regret it and wish you had never had the surgery at all.”
“I can endure it.”
But Ezekail’s answer, too, was without hesitation.
“Because Rose will be by my side.”